The present invention relates to a camshaft adjuster according to the preamble of Patent Claim 1, comprising a camshaft axis of rotation defined by a camshaft, in particular by a carrier shaft of a camshaft, about which the camshaft is rotatable.
Because of the limited installation space in the region of a displacement engine of a motor vehicle there is frequently the need of realising the electromagnetic multi-tappet actuating device, comprising a plurality of activatable (typically selectively, i.e. independently of one another) tappet units in a sufficiently compact manner, so that on the one hand a sufficient electromagnetic functionality is ensured (for example with respect to the necessary adjusting stroke of the tappet units as well as reaction or switching times) and on the other hand there is no undesirable mutual influencing—mechanically or electromagnetically.
From DE 10 2007 040 677 A1 a camshaft adjuster is known, in which the tappet units interacting with a drive unit each are arranged in such a manner that their respective tappet longitudinal centre axis intersects the axis of rotation of the camshaft. At the same time, the drive units are arranged offset in circumferential direction of the camshaft, so that the tappet longitudinal centre axes of the tappet units run angularly to one another. This results in a comparatively large installation space that is required. Disadvantageous are also production-related difficulties.
From DE 10 2007 028 600 A1, an electromagnetic multi-tappet actuating device for a camshaft adjuster that is optimised with respect to the installation space requirement is known, wherein the installation space minimisation is the result of the drive units being arranged in such a manner that the tappet units that are actuatable by these or the tappet longitudinal centre axes defined by the tappet units are arranged parallel in a row one after the other, wherein all tappet longitudinal centre axes intersect the camshaft axis of rotation also in this case. The known electromagnetic actuating device for camshaft adjusters has proved itself. In particular, the axially parallel arrangement of the tappet units with respect to one another constitutes an economic as well as system-related robust advantage in contrast with the tappet units which are arranged offset over the circumference of the camshaft, in which the tappet longitudinal centre axis intersects the camshaft axis of rotation, wherein however the overlap region between tappet unit and actuator is rather small. Efforts are made to configure the electromagnetic actuating device of the camshaft adjuster even more compact and more efficient with respect to the installation space, wherein however as large as possible a contact area between the tappet units and the associated drive units is to be ensured.